Friday, November 2, 2012

UMAC Championship and Playoff Scenario

There has been some confusion over what will happen in different scenarios concerning the UMAC Championship and who will claim the automatic qualifier (AQ) into the NCAA Playoffs. In order to clear things up, I have done some research and contacted the UMAC's SID Greg Johnson and here is what I have learned:
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Scenario 1:

Northwestern defeats Greenville:
-Northwestern claims UMAC Championship outright and AQ into NCAA Playoffs
-UM-Morris at St. Scholastica result is inconsequential

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Scenario 2:

Greenville defeats Northwestern & St. Scholastica defeats UM-Morris:
-Northwestern (7-1), Greenville (7-1), and St. Scholastica (7-1) will share the UMAC Championship
-There will be a random draw to detemine who receives the AQ into the NCAA playoffs according to the UMAC's official criteria for tiebreaking (from the Official UMAC Website):

http://umacathletics.com/custompages/bylaws/UMAC%20Football%20Sport%20Guidelines.pdf
II. NCAA Championship Automatic Qualifier (“AQ”) Determination & Tiebreaker Criteria
  1. Best conference record (based upon winning % of conference contests)
    1. Each team will have a .875 win percentage
  2. If two way tie then head-to-head result
    1. Not applicable
  3. If three-way tie then head-to-head results amongst three (2-0 advances)
    1. Head-to-head results amongst the three are 1-1 for each team
  4. If three-way tie without 2-0 record, then record against rest of conference standings in descending order of finish (4th place, 5th place, etc.)
    1. As each team will have only lost to each other and have defeated all other UMAC opponents, their records will be equal against the rest of conference.
  5. Random draw (if three or more teams) or coin flip (two teams) by UMAC Commissioner
    1. This will be the criteria used to determine who receives the AQ into the NCAA playoffs.
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Scenario 3:

Greenville defeats Northwestern & UM-Morris defeats St. Scholastica:
-Northwestern (7-1) and Greenville (7-1) will share the UMAC Championship
-Because Greenville won the head-to-head matchup, they will receive the AQ into the NCAA Playoffs according to part 2 of the UMAC AQ Tiebreaker Criteria listed above.
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After all of this is determined, the NCAA playoff brackets will be assembled and we will learn who the UMAC will face in the first round. D3football.com writer Pat Coleman has made bracket predictions and the likely opponent (due to the NCAA leaning towards reducing costs and likely shuffling playoff brackets to limit travel distances) will be the No. 4 ranked St. Thomas Tommies of St. Paul, Minnesota. If the NCAA does not limit the travel distance, then the other predicted opponent would have the UMAC champion traveling out to McMinnville, Oregon to face Linfield College.

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